About the ITIL story

The guidance provided in this publication can be adopted and adapted for all types of organization and service. To show how the concepts of ITIL can be practically applied to an organization’s activities, ITIL^® 4: Create, Deliver and Support follows the exploits of a fictional company on its ITIL journey.

This company, Axle Car Hire, is undergoing a transformation to modernize its services and improve its customer satisfaction and retention levels, and is using ITIL to do this. In each chapter of the text, the employees of Axle will describe how the company is improving its services, and explain how they are using ITIL best practice to do this.

ITIL storyline sections appear throughout the text, separated by a distinct border.

The story so far

Axle Car Hire is undergoing a digital transformation.

Axle is headquartered in Seattle, with branches across Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific. Before its transformation, Axle faced a downturn in business and a decrease in customer satisfaction. It lost customers to disruptive enterprises offering innovative services, including car-sharing and driverless cars, through online platforms and mobile apps.

Consequently, Axle hired a new CIO, Henri, who was chosen for his experience in large-scale IT transformations, balancing approaches such as design thinking, DevOps, and Agile with management frameworks such as ITIL, ISO, COBIT, and IT4IT. He understands the importance of embracing IT and digital innovation in modern business. He was tasked with increasing customer satisfaction, attracting and retaining customers, and improving the company’s bottom line.

Henri prioritized the digital transformation of Axle and used ITIL as a foundational source of best practice on which to build other approaches. This enabled the change he knew the business needed. The adoption and adaptation of ITIL helped Henri to deliver the high-quality services that co-created value for Axle and its customers. He examined the ways that Axle could manage the four dimensions of service management, adopt the service value chain, and utilize the seven ITIL guiding principles in the continual improvement of its services.

Under Henri’s direction, new services were introduced, such as the advanced driver assistance system and biometric access to vehicles. These new services were widely adopted by Axle’s customers. As a result, the company gained a reputation for fast and reliable service. Customer loyalty improved and repeat bookings increased. The Axle Green improvement initiative was also introduced to help Axle achieve its vision to be an environmentally friendly organization. Many of the company’s environmentally friendly targets have already been achieved, with plans for new developments underway. A project to ensure that half the Axle fleet runs on sustainably generated electricity is making progress.

After a period of strong growth, Axle is experimenting with new service models in response to the changing business climate. In different locations around the world, Axle is looking for solutions to the new challenges it faces. If the new service models are successful, they can be deployed in Axle’s branches worldwide.